Diary of a Middleearth Sim
by Elf of Sirannon
Summary: Probably not worth your time - just indulge me in this little experiment of mine.
1. Aim and Hypothesis

Mae govannen, faceless, named masses of the ff.net community. I hope you will at least indulge me in this little experiment of mine. I undertake this purely as a means of scientific study; but if you get something out of it, well, that's great too.  
  
The experiment began last night whilst I was playing the Sims. Anyone else who is obsessed with this computer game will know how good it is. Anyone who doesn't know it might be a little lost here, so I'll try to explain it as best I can. Basically you create people, give them personalities and outfits and buy them blocks of land. You can then design and build them a house, decorate it, and buy them cool stuff to put in it. You then get them a career, give them relationships with the neighbours and people they meet out and about; they can have parties, go on dates, go on vacation, all sorts of stuff.  
  
The idea of the game is to control your people (your 'Sims') so that they don't do anything that's gonna majorly stuff up their life; like making their neighbours hate them, or burning the house down (a very disastrous scenario if your Sim is burnt down too). However, as these Sims have distinct personalities which YOU have created, if you leave them alone, eventually they'll do whatever they want to do. They'll interact with each other, and with certain objects. Sure, you can force them to do stuff, but their personalities still affect things - for example, if you make a Sim kiss a Sim they are friends with, if that Sim is not very outgoing they may not take it very well!  
  
So, being the LOTR obsessed person I am, I decided, what would happen if our beloved Fellowship were digitalized and forced into a computer game?  
  
So I decided to try it out. I have devoted a whole neighbourhood in my game to the Fellowship characters - each one having a block of land of their own - and I am now embarking on my little study to see how they interact with each other. Those of you familiar with the game will know that there are 10 lots in each neighbourhood. 10! Not nine, 10! So, wryly, I thought, "Hmm...who else has surfaced on ff.net, swelling a perfect group of nine, to ten?" So I will put Mary Sue in this world as well. Let's see if the perfect little priss can REALLY get Legolas, Aragorn and Frodo to drool all over her.  
  
Oh, and to those who are fans of non-Fellowship characters, don't worry. I originally thought about putting more in (each lot can hold 8 people - 8 times 10 = 80 characters), but I decided against it. I thought, that might be an unwanted variable affecting how the individuals react to one another. If someone dies, or someone moves in with someone else and a spare block becomes available, I will be sure to move another non-Fellowship character right in.  
  
So watch this space.  
  
(A/N: Any tips, ideas, or comments are welcome. And remember, I'm not just making this up. This is a real bona-fide experiment, and if you come to my house, you'll find there's a real neighbourhood in my Sims game with each of these people there). 


	2. April 25th, 2003

(A/N: If you're still reading...wow).  
  
Friday April 25th 2003  
  
Journal of Events:  
  
Three Middle-earth Sims were created and moved in today.  
  
Firstly, I created Frodo and moved him into 1 Sim Lane. I built him a nice place with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living room, hallway and eating kitchen. Unfortunately after that he did not have much money, so I could only afford to buy him a toilet, a fridge, one bench, a sofa and a bookcase. Now he has about 150 Simoleons to his name. I am trying to find him a job. Whatever he gets when he opens the paper, he's stuck with.  
  
(Later...) Frodo got a job in the X-treme career track as a Daredevil. Went to his first day on the job and earnt $175. I haven't bought him anything with that yet.  
  
I then created Sam and moved him into 2 Sim Lane. I built him a house with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, a living room and eating kitchen. Then he had very little money, so I was only able to buy him a toilet, a fridge, 1 bench, a sofa and 1 lamp. I got him a job in the Military career track as a Recruit; he starts work at 6am tomorrow. Frodo then came for a visit; they hit it off and are on friendly-hug basis already. The kiss and flirt options came up almost immediately - why am I not surprised?  
  
Their friend points are 18/8 (the former being short term friend status and the latter being long term friend status, scores being out of 100).  
  
Following this, I created Merry and moved him into 3 Sim Lane. I built him a nice house with one bedroom, one bathroom, a living room, hallway and eating kitchen. His block must have been significantly cheaper than Sam and Frodo's coz he had quite a lot of money to spend. I bought him a sofa, a TV, a fridge, two benches, a microwave, a kitchen table, four crappy chairs, a toilet, a bathroom sink, a shower, a bed, a bale of hay for a bedside table, and a lamp. Go Merry! Frodo and Sam came visiting, and the friendships progressed quite nicely. Except Merry told Frodo a joke and Frodo thought it sucked, so that wasn't too good. But Merry made Sam and Frodo breakfast in his brand new microwave, which was good. I also got him a job in the Hacker career track as a Beta Tester. Can anyone else not see our beloved Master of Buckland working at a computer? Oh well. It's cash, I'll get him a different job later. Maybe I should get Merry into politics? He is the Master of Buckland, after all.  
  
(A/N: More coming. Review if this madness actually entertains you. Any flames will be stored up and used as campfires when my Middle-earth Sims go merrymaking at Legolas'). 


	3. April 26th, 2003

(A/N: To Katherine, who said that she was able to obtain the skins of Aragorn and Legolas - lol! I was aware that there are skins of LOTR characters out there in the Sim-fan world, but every time I download anything, for some reason my computer doesn't like it (it slows the game and sometimes makes it freeze). So I just use the skins that come with the game and the Expansion packs. They look KINDA like the Fellowship...  
  
And to Med-Jai Ferret, yes it is definitely worth buying. I have never played it on X-box, but I know it's different than on PC. The PC version is so addictive, particularly after you get all the expansion packs).  
  
Anyway, another day in the life of the Fellowship.  
  
April 26th 2003  
  
Today I created Pippin and moved him into 4 Sim Lane. I built him house with one bedroom, one bathroom, living room and eating kitchen. After this, Pippin even richer than Merry! I was able to buy him three-seater sofa, TV, record player, two floor lamps, one hanging lamp, model railway, 3 benchtops, kitchen sink, fridge, food processor, stove, kitchen table, four crappy chairs, phone, shower, toilet, bathroom sink, bath, frilly bed, bedside table, one lamp. And he still has about $750 left over.  
  
(Later...) I sold the model rail when I realized being an adult, he couldn't play with it. Pip went off to his first day at work. Whilst he was gone, Frodo and Sam came visiting, then Merry, but they all left coz Pip wasn't at home. Then Merry walked mysteriously past the house three times. After Pip's day at work, he got promoted to Support Tech, which means he works 8am to 4am, and earned $150, plus a bonus for promotion of $300. I wanted to get him another job, but when he checked the paper, the only other job was in the Life of Crime career track as a Pickpocket. Now Pip is mischevious but I don't want the Thain becoming a criminal. (He should get into politics too). So considering this fact, and considering that he'd just been promoted to Support Tech anyway (he's technically Merry's superior now), I'll leave him where he is unless something better comes up. Now I just have to wait for Merry to meander past again and Pip can make friends.  
  
(Later...) In an effort to meet his neighbours Frodo, Merry and Sam, Pip threw a party. It was a sucky party, and the mime showed up straight away, but it was a good way of getting them to meet. (In this game, if your party sucks, a French mime arrives. If it rocks, Drew Carrey shows up). But Merry didn't turn up! Snob. Anyway. Pip is now good friends with Frodo (18/3) and Sam (14/2) mostly because they spent most of the party on the couch watching TV together, but oh well. Pip, Frodo and Sam have now also met some Townies - Philip, Kendrick, Umberto, Rhett, Hector and Sebastien. Pip went to bed at about 11pm and his guests didn't leave until about 12:30am. But no cops came around the break the party up.  
  
I then created Gandalf, built house with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living room and eating kitchen, and hallway. I was able to buy Gandalf a single bed, shower, toilet, bathroom sink, bookcase, sofa, TV, fridge, 3 benchtops, stove, fire alarm, food processor, table, 3 kitchen chairs, 4 floor lamps. Gandalf got a job in the Hacker career track as a Beta tester - what's with all the hackers?  
  
Then Frodo and Sam came to visit; Sam kept gossiping to Gandalf and Gandalf wasn't too impressed, but made up for it by complimenting Sam and talking to him. Then Pippin came by, Pip and Gandalf actually hit it off, although the flirt option came up which was disturbing. At the end of the night, Pip's friendship score was about 45/9, Sam's 14/4 and Frodo's 3/2, probably just because Gandalf and Frodo didn't spend too much time around each other. It's not like they hate each other or anything.  
  
(A/N: Please review. The next one to be moved in is Aragorn). 


End file.
